


Kings of the Road, Kings of the Universe

by EzzyDean



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Captain's Week 2016, Gen, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-08 01:49:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7738777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyDean/pseuds/EzzyDean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eight magical captains, one bus, an entire summer (and country) waiting for them.  </p>
<p>What could possibly go wrong?</p>
<p>(The magic of friendship meets the magic of a summer road trip meets pure magic.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kings of the Road, Kings of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> This is written for HQ Captain's Week 2016 and it uses a lot of the various prompts but is seated pretty securely in the road trip and magic prompts.

“I could crush you with my thighs.”

As far as threats went it wasn’t even the most creative one Terushima Yuuji had heard that week.  But it was somehow the most intimidating one especially coming from someone as small as her.  It was, also, one of the most interesting reactions he had ever remembered getting after telling someone they look nice.  As Michimiya Yui walked away, face bright red and slightly mortified, he turned to Kuroo.

“Are she and Daichi related in any way?  Because that was one of the first things he said to me when we became roommates.”

“Uh related?  No.  But they did go to high school together.”  Kuroo’s attention returned to the books he had spread out on the table in front of him - studying for an exam that he already knew he’d pass - and Yuuji returned to the counter to finish his shift.

 

 

Five months later he found himself leaning against a red and white minibus - just big enough to fit their ragtag group of friends - outside of Yui’s house and watching as the trees tipped their branches and rustled their leaves even though there wasn’t a breath of a breeze in the air.  It wouldn’t have been strange if Ushijima had been here and Yuuji wonders if someone in Yui’s family was adept with nature magic.  He’d have to ask at some point.

Daichi stood at the front of their group and was talking with Yui’s mother which Yuuji was glad for.  Once upon a time he had found out the hard way that you do not piss Michimiya Yui off and come out unscathed.  He had spent three days looking like he had an allergic reaction to life itself before her hex had worn off.  

It had been the start of a beautiful friendship and now they get along quite well, thankfully, considering his wallet couldn’t afford him having to buy a hex cure every other day.  But their friendship didn’t mean that her mother didn’t still intimidate the hell out of him.

She did.  Anyone who gave birth to Yui, raised her to be the fiery little imp she was, and could still smile like both Yui and herself were swathed in a blanket of innocence and hand-spun sugar was a force to be reckoned with and afraid of.

And he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

But Daichi had known her since they were in high school - and he had a way with parents and authority figures that the rest of them, save for Ushijima, really didn’t - and was therefore tasked with talking to her mother about this little trip of theirs and giving her that final tug to let go of Yui’s hand and let her join the adventure without guilt riding her shoulders.

“I just don’t know, Yui.”  Her mother fretted.  “It’s just a long time with you on the road with a bunch of boys I don’t know.  Not you, Sawamura, you’re a dear.  But the rest of them…”

Daichi floundered a little, unsure of what to say to convince her mother that they weren’t a threat.  Which was a bit difficult with Kuroo and his messy hair and sly smile, Bokuto and his nearly tangible enthusiasm, and Yuuji with his piercings and general attitude.  They  _ were  _ a threat.  Just not to Yui.

“Don’t worry ma’am,” Bokuto broke in.  He was wearing his most sincere smile.  The one that got small children to smile back at him and got him extra scoops at the ice cream shop.  “She intimidates the hell out of us and she could hex us all within an inch of our lives and we all know it.  She could also crush our skulls without really even breaking a sweat and we all love her for it.  Really.  Consider it a favor.  We’ll be safer if she comes with us.”

  
  


 

“I can not believe you said that to my mother.”  Yui smacked Bokuto on the shoulder before leaning back into the seat behind him with a huff.  “Seriously that was the most mortifying thing ever.”

“When we met you told me you could crush my skull with your thighs,” Yuuji reminded her.  “How was this more mortifying than that?”

“I hate you all.  I don’t even know why I agreed to this road trip.”

“Don’t make me turn this bus around,” Daichi announced from the front.  “Hell I won’t even turn around.  I’ll just stop and leave you all on Oikawa’s doorstep and go by myself.”

“This is the third time he’s said that.  I think he’s really getting into the road trip mood.”  Kuroo whispered, but made no real attempt to not be heard.

They picked up Futakuchi without a problem and he flopped onto the seat behind Yuuji with a grin before turning to ask Kuroo about their last final.

“Nerds,” Yuuji teased, fingers playing with the dark stud in his ear as he watched the scenery pass.

He was excited to feel the air rushing in the windows and hear the hum of the open road under their tires.  Futakuchi was vibrant, eyes lit up with joy and laughter falling easily from his lips and his mood was infectious, winding them all up even further as Daichi drove the bus towards the park halfway between Oikawa and Ushijima’s respective dorms.

This trip was going to be good.  For all of them and for their friendship.  He could feel it.  It didn’t matter that the others were a year older than Futakuchi and himself.  It didn’t matter that, as a group, they didn’t know that much about each other - they were branches of friends at best and Sawamura Daichi was their trunk.

An entire country, an entire continent if they wanted, spread out in front of them just waiting for them to stumble across its magical streams and hidden lights and little niches tucked into majestic forests and shadowy alleyways.  The thoughts of all the places they would find and the things they’d see and experience made his fingers itch to dig into the world and take it for his own.

Pulling up to the park the only thing Oikawa seemed ready to do was dig his fingers into Ushijima’s throat and strangle him.  How Oikawa managed to convey that sprawled out on a bench thirty feet away from Ushijima, Yuuji wasn’t sure.  But he conveyed it well.  Maybe it was the sour lemon pout on his face or the way he was defiantly  _ not _ looking at Ushijima or his stuff and was instead frowning down at the bag pressed against his own leg and shoving his phone into it the moment he spotted the bus.

Oikawa was off his bench and on the bus, bags tossed into the now half-full storage space in the back behind Yui’s seat and sunglasses shoved to the top of his head, before Ushijima even stood up.  He waited until Ushijima had made his way over, one arm cradling a small pot with a vine of some kind growing from it to his chest and his duffel bag hooked from the other, before he sighed.

“I am not spending the entirety of our road trip on a bus with Ushiwaka and his  _ plant _ .”  He dropped to the seat behind Daichi’s driver’s seat with a huff when none of them reacted to his announcement.

Ushijima set his bag in the storage area and held the pot in both hands as he studied Oikawa’s face for a moment before settling the pot into the last empty seat and sitting beside it.  

“I would hope you would get off the bus and enjoy the fresh air and some of scenery from time to time, not to mention the various facilities.  And his name is Phil, please use it accordingly.”

Daichi took a deep breath and muttered something about long trips that Yuuji didn’t quite hear properly because he was too busy watching Phil’s flowers shift from blue to purple to pink as the vines started to inch towards the front of the bus.

“This is a nice enough bus, Daichi,” Oikawa said.  “But I’m not sure there will be enough room to hold all the souvenirs that Magical Theory is My Jam Boy and his pet bird will be sure to drag on board.”

“Oikawa,” Daichi replied in a tone that Yuuji, as his roommate, had gotten used to hearing.  Usually when yuuji had been awake for far too long and was getting on every single one of Daichi’s last nerves.  At the same time.  It made him squish himself a little closer to the window because the last time it had happened Daichi had put up wards around random things in their shared room and Yuuji had found himself turning green and rashy from nearly everything.  Even trying to step into the bathroom.  It had not been a pleasant experience.  

“Oikawa,” Daichi repeated when Oikawa didn’t immediately appear to listen.  “One.  Stop being nasty just because you didn’t sleep last night.  Two.  Ushijima is more than welcome to bring Phil if Phil wants to come.  Three.  This is a rental do not enchant it.  Do you hear me?  Do.  Not.  Enchant.  The bus.  Do you know how much it would cost if we had to buy this damn thing because one of your enchantments gave it rabbit ears?”

Oikawa scoffed.  “I screw up one time in class and you never let me hear the end of it.”

“I had rabbit ears for a month,” Daichi hissed.  “And we’re leaving now.  If anyone is going to have too many issues now is the time to get off the bus.”

Yui snickered: Daichi had been adorable in rabbit ears.

Kuroo snickered: he loved seeing the great Oikawa screwing things up.

Ushijima snickered: they  _ all  _ had  _ so many issues _ he is still a little surprised they all agreed to go on the trip together.

Futakuchi frowned: he was already kind of missing the fact that Moniwa couldn’t come with them.  

But he took a quick shot of the rest of the group on the bus and sent it to Moniwa.  Phil was still inching towards Oikawa who had pulled his sunglasses back on, Ushijima was staring out the window, Yui was threatening Yuuji who was pleading with Bokuto who was ignoring him and digging into Kuroo’s bag, Kuroo was getting ready to throw a paper airplane at Daichi and Daichi, back to them all as he pulled away from the park, already looked ready to get off the bus and just walk his way across the country.

It was going to be an amazing summer.

 

\--

 

“Pull over!  We have to see this!”

It had been three hours since he picked up the minibus from the rental place, they had barely even left the edge of the city, and Daichi was already regretting his decision to be the driver for the trip.  But, really, who else was going to?  Bokuto got distracted at everything and would be pulling over for every shiny attraction and slightly odd looking rock.

"It's just a big tree with fairy lights, Kou."  Kuroo tried, Daichi knew, but he just wound up giving in to the others’ whines and pleas and puppy eyes too easily and they’d only be stopping marginally less than if Bokuto drove.  Especially when the most pleas would come from Bokuto and they all knew Kuroo was weakest against his best friend and his unusual ideas.

"No, Tetsu.  It’s not ‘just’ a tree.  It’s the World’s Most Magical Tree.”

“Bokuto if we keep travelling west on this road you’ll probably see a dozen of the ‘World’s Most Magical’ trees before the week is out.”  Daichi knew from experience that Oikawa would get lost.  And then not even admit it when they were a hundred miles in the wrong direction.  Maps could not help Oikawa.  GPS could not help Oikawa.  An enchanted compass (courtesy of their ever exasperated volleyball coach when Oikawa got lost on his way to a match for the fifth time in a month) that gave you turn by turn directions down to the number of steps left once you told it where you were going couldn’t help Oikawa Tooru.

“You do realize we are headed east, not west, right?”  Ushijima, possibly the sanest one on the bus at that moment, didn’t even have his license and right then Daichi was a little jealous of that.

“Can we stop at the next gas station or rest stop or whatever?  I kinda gotta use the bathroom.”  

“Me too.”  Futakuchi and Terushima were out of the question.  They had horrible taste in music and if nothing else Daichi at least took comfort in the fact that if he was driving he could pick the music.

“Oh just go ahead and stop at the tree, Daichi.”    Yui would manage driving fine.  Daichi knew she would.  She knew Daichi knew. She smiled at him from her perch on the large back seat of the bus.  She would perfectly fine driving.  She just didn’t want to.  “We can use the break.”

It had barely been three hours.

Daichi didn’t  _ need  _ a break.  What he needed was a drink and to go back in time and possibly rethink his agreement when Kuroo and Oikawa had suggested this trip and to not have people with him who insisted on pulling off at every kitschy shiny roadside attraction they saw.  He was not going to stop this time.  They had barely even gotten anywhere.

Daichi met Yui’s eyes in the rearview mirror as Bokuto let out a sound that reminded Daichi of the look his puppy gave him when it was scolded for doing something wrong.

 

He pulled the bus off at the turn off and parked next to the giant sign proclaiming they were about to visit the World’s Most Magical Tree and were in For The Time Of Their LIVES!

 

\--

 

“I got you a present.”

Yui cooed as the little creature hopped out of Oikawa’s hands and onto the large backseat of the bus.  It had spindly legs that ended in tiny mouselike paws and wide brown eyes that looked up at her, blinking sleepily as she ran a finger along the soft brown fur.  It stumbled over to her and curled up against her hip, little round ears twitching as Oikawa traced along the white spots on its back with the faintest of smiles on his face.

“A little deermouse.  Where did you get it?”

He wasn’t wearing his usual smirk, the sharp smile replaced by something softer, something he didn’t let many people see.  Yui was proud to be one of those few people the great Oikawa Tooru allowed himself to let his guard down around.

“She was behind one of the shops downtown.  Looked pretty lost considering they usually aren’t found outside of forests.”

Yui had known him long enough to understand that this meant he rescued her from something behind the shops.  Most likely from being tangled up in something in the alley.  It was obvious to her in the way he casually waved his hand in the direction of downtown where the rest of the group was still wandering through shops and the way he refused to meet her eyes, keeping his own gaze on the deermouse instead.  Why he hid this kindness, this sincerity, from most of the world she still hadn’t figured out but the fact that he showed her, time and time again, made her feel treasured.

“She’s adorable.”

Oikawa shrugged.  “She’s yours now.  Unless you think we can find her a place in a forest.”

The deermouse didn’t look too incredibly old and if they could find her family she’d probably be fine to rejoin them.  But the closest forest was nearly forty minutes away and there was no promise they’d even be able to find any other deermice and even if they did if they weren’t her family they might not take her in.

“I’d hate to just take her away but if we just left her in a forest somewhere I doubt she’d make it at all.”  Oikawa nodded in agreement and smiled again.  The little deermouse opened it’s eyes and carefully crawled up into her lap and immediately went back to sleep and that was it.  “It can stay with me.”  Oikawa’s laughter was even more charming when he wasn’t trying to be suave or sly or, well, charming, and that sincere smile of his made him a little hard to look at.  “But that doesn’t mean you can have my back seat.”

“Rude.”  Oikawa’s pout kicked in full force.

“But I may be inclined to share with you from time to time.”

 

 

“It is adorable,” Ushijima announced with a crinkle of grocery bags as he settled into the seat in front of her.  “What is it’s name?”

“Her name is Grand Master Sugar Spots.  Master Spots for short.”

“Grand Master Sugar Spots.  It’s fitting.”  Ushijima ran a finger under Master Spots’ chin, smiling when the deermouse yawned and snuggled against Yui’s stomach.  “I’m glad Oikawa found a place for her.  But best not to tell him I saw him untangling her.  It would ruin his image.”

 

\--

 

“Dare,” Bokuto announced proudly.

“Next place we stop at you have to catch a brownie,” Oikawa replied without hesitation, smile looking almost sinister in darkness of the bus.  “And bring it back to us.”

“No problem.”  Bokuto turned to Terushima.  “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.  Obviously.”  There had been very few truths shared so far during the game and an almost surprising number of dares considering it was nearly one in the morning and they were on the bus driving and looking for the next closest rest stop or parking lot they could pull off and crash in for a few hours.

“Cast a love spell on someone.”  Bokuto sounded smug.

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

  
  


Kenji stretched, arms out to his side, and nearly hit Terushima in the face where he was leaning against their minibus in the parking lot outside the old mansion-turned-convenience store they had stopped at for a break.  Daichi was settled on the ground near the door onto the bus.  Bokuto had hurried off for his brownie hunt the moment Daichi had shifted the bus into park and they hadn’t seen him for almost forty minutes and Kenji’s focus has been drifting between the last place he had seen Bokuto and over to where Oikawa was preening and cooing at himself in his reflection in the door behind Daichi - Terushima had used his dare to cast a love spell on Oikawa, making him fall in love with his own reflection which Kenji thought was a bit ridiculous seeing as how Oikawa was already pretty in love with himself most of the time but whatever, it wasn’t his dare.

“Truth,” Ushijima said calmly from his spot across from Kuroo.

“Most embarrassing spell gone wrong.”

Kenji drew nonsense lines and patterns in the dust on the bus as he half listened to Ushijima tell about how he had transformed himself into a mouse in high school and, unsure of exactly how long it would last or how to change back, tried to sneak his way across the school to the gym, trying to avoid the handful of cats that were always hanging around and wound up changing back halfway across the stage during the orchestra’s rehearsal.

“Yes, Kuroo, I was naked when I changed back.  Obviously.”

“And that was the most embarrassing part?  Right?”  Ushijima glanced over as Oikawa finally pulled himself from his reflection to join the conversation.

“The most embarrassing part was not knowing how to change back in the first place.”

Oikawa snorted.  “Of course it was.”

Kenji saw Bokuto pop around the corner of the building and wave excitedly at them as Ushijima turned to Daichi.

“Truth or dare, Sawamura.”

Daichi sighed heavily.  “Truth.”

“Your worst mistake ever.”

“Saying yes to this trip and getting in this bus,” Daichi answered immediately.  Bokuto jogged up to them with a grin.

“Dare accomplished.”

“Let’s see it then.”  Kuroo’s eyes lit up expectantly only to narrow in confusion when a small package hit him in the chest and fell to the ground.  Kenji managed to catch the one tossed at him and most of the others did as well.  The cellophane crinkled around the little square in his hand.

“That is not what I meant when I dared you that.”  Oikawa wasn’t completely out of the love spell.  His eyes kept drifting towards his reflection and then snapping back to Bokuto’s grinning face.  “I didn’t mean the kind of brownie you eat.  I meant, you know, a Brownie.  Little creatures.  Not delicious snack cakes.”

The bus rumbled a little as Daichi tried to open the door.

Bokuto shrugged.  “Should have been more specific.”

“Oikawa.”  Kenji looked over in concern at Daichi’s voice.  He knew that tone.  Maybe not from Daichi specifically but that tone in general was one he remembered hearing from Moniwa their last year of high school together.  Terushima sat up straighter at the tone and gave Kenji a wide eyed look.  Oikawa, to his credit, finally pulled his attention away from his reflection fully and smiled sweetly at Daichi.

“Yes?”

“The bus is talking to me.”

The smile dropped just a fraction before coming back a hundred times brighter.

“And you’re telling me because?”

“God damn it Oikawa I  _ told _ you not to enchant the bus!”

“In my defense: it doesn’t have rabbit ears!”

“It is talking to me!”  Kenji wasn’t sure he’d ever actually heard Daichi yell.  It was a little frightening.  “Actual words that I can understand.  And now it won’t let me back in.”

“I am right here you know,” a voice rumbled against his back and Kenji pulled away from the bus in surprise.  “And I have a name.  I’m not just an it.”

“The bus can talk.  And it is sentient.  What the hell did you do, Oikawa?”

“I am Albus Busford Sebustian Carl the Third.  And I would appreciate you calling me thus.”

  
  
  


“Hey.  How’s it going?”

The dramatic pause and long suffering sigh were a bit over the top in Kenji’s opinion.  And he’d been travelling on a bus with Oikawa and Terushima for a week now so that was saying something.

“I’m changing phone numbers.”

“What?  Hey that’s rude.”

Yui was standing between Oikawa and Daichi and Kenji took a second to appreciate how much guts that took at this particular moment given the fact that Daichi had his murderface on and Oikawa was arguing with him, eyes narrowed and hands gesturing dramatically.

Kenji let out an impressed hum; he never really knew that rude gestures could look so polished and almost classy.  Leave it to Oikawa, he supposed.

“What do you want, Kenji?”

“How’s the family thing going?”

Another sigh.  He really didn’t remember Moniwa being quite so sighy and tired sounding even back in high school.  Maybe he should have tried harder to get him to come with on this trip even though he had insisted that he had “other obligations” and was spending the summer working with family on the other side of the country.  Kenji still wondered if that was code for Moniwa having a girlfriend or boyfriend that he didn’t want to introduce to them because he was embarrassed of his group of friends.  Honestly the only one to maybe be embarrassed by was Ushijima.  Maybe Terushima as well.  But that was it.

“It’s fine.  My grandfather still has that large forest property to take care of and he’s been having me do most of the rounds in it so far.  What do you need, Kenji?”

“Why do you think I need something?”

“I can hear Daichi yelling in the background.  That alone is enough to know you guys go into some kind of trouble.  Look if you need me to bail you out of jail or something sorry.  I’m too far away and, honestly, I don’t know or like most of you enough to bother.”

“You like me enough though, right.”

“Some days.  Now seriously.  I need to start my rounds soon.  You do realize it’s like 6 AM right?”

“Yeah.  So uh.  Do you have any advice on how to get a sentient bus to let you back inside it so you can keep going on your road trip?”

The yelling died down thankfully and Kenji wandered a little closer, wary of Oikawa’s long arms and grand gesturing.  Kuroo and Bokuto were hopping around near the front of the bus asking questions, Ushijima was seated on the ground and leaning against the side of the bus.  Terushima, Daichi, and Yui were now absent.  Oikawa was scowling at the ground.

“A sentient bus?  Kenji.”

“Yeah, Moniwa?” 

“Your bus wasn’t sentient when you left was it?”

“Uh.  No?”

“You realize that’s probably not legal to do.  Or safe.  Or sane.”

“Yes.  I know it was a bad idea.”  Oikawa’s head whipped up and he glared at Kenji.  “I didn’t do it, though, and there’s no fixing it now.”  Kenji glared back.

“Well if somebody wasn’t constantly buying ‘the world’s largest sour gummy candy’ by the literal  _ box load _ we wouldn’t have needed more space,” Oikawa declared loud enough for Moniwa to hear.

Moniwa sighed into the phone.  “Kenji.”

Kenji was determined to find out how to make everything Oikawa ate or drank taste sour for the rest of the trip if it was the last thing he did.

 

\--

 

Kuroo jerked awake sore and confused.  It took a minute of blinking in the low light to recognize the little sparkling lights floating around the inside of the bus - Bokuto’s specialty - and the sound of Ushijima asleep on the seat behind him and remember that they had pulled off the road for the night and opted to just sleep in the bus instead of searching the nearby small town for a hotel.  He fought to stay awake in the dim light but a voice tugged at him and pulled him under with a sigh falling from his lips, leaving Oikawa and his chronic insomnia to watch over them and sing softly into the night.

 

\--

 

Yui looked past Yuuji’s shoulder with a laugh, fully charmed by the sight of Bokuto blocking the sunset they were all trying to watch and flexing dramatically.  His arm perfectly covered the horizon and the sun was setting on the curve of his bicep.  Purples and pinks painted the sky behind him and he was a shadow, eyes glowing playfully in the dimming light and only glowing brighter as the others scolded and teased him for blocking the view.

 

\--

 

The rain was soft.  A steady rush of white noise making the leaves on the trees around the picnic shelter bow and shiver and rustle despite the lack of breeze.  They had found four picnic tables under the shelter - the kind that actually had separate benches though most of them seemed to have been left out in the rain somewhere - shoved together when they got there and Tooru had wondered if there had been others like them there recently.  If there had been another group of people, another group of companions teetering on the edges of everlasting friendship and the frightful roaring rush of adulthood who had stopped here to take in the scenery, to take a deep breath of the clear air and try to plot a course through the looming future.

It was a cool rain, but not unpleasant when Tooru leaned to the side and stuck his arm out.  Yui elbowed him in the ribs and grinned at him when he shot her a hurt look.

There was barely enough room under the shelter for four tables, three benches, and the eight of them.  Ushiwaka took up most of the single bench on the one side of the tables, flat on his back, head pillowed on what Tooru was pretty sure was one of Futakuchi’s sweatshirts.  Or at least one of the sweatshirts Tooru himself hadn’t borrowed yet.  He was still waiting to be called out for stealing ninety percent of Futakuchi’s - and a good portion of everyone else’s - wardrobe in the few weeks they’ve been on the road.  Bokuto was cocooned in a blanket and still somehow flopped across most of the top of the tables with Tooru and Yui sitting cross legged near Bokuto’s head, knees brushing.  Kuroo, Futakuchi, Daichi and Terushima took up the space on the two remaining benches, Terushima stuck on the end and unable to move Daichi any further down the bench for more room so he simply pressed himself against Daichi’s side to avoid getting rained on.

Kuroo was telling a story, something involving a lot of hand gestures that made his eyes sparkle with mirth and his mouth quirk into a grin even as the words tumbled from his lips, but Tooru wasn’t even paying attention.  Not really.  Not to the words anyway.  He was, instead, watching the way Yui smiled and rolled her eyes to meet Daichi’s, sharing some long ago forged bond that made Daichi smile and nod in agreement.  He watched the way Ushiwaka would raise his hand to get Kuroo to pause so he could add his own memory to the story before letting it fall slowly back to his chest.  The way Futakuchi played with the edge of Bokuto’s blanket with one hand and buried his snickers at Kuroo’s story into his other.  Watched Terushima twist the thin leather bracelet on his wrist, smile never leaving his face even when Kuroo said something that made him blush.  He felt more than saw Bokuto wriggle around on the top of the table until he could nuzzle his head against Tooru’s knee until Tooru gave in and started running a hand through his hair.

There was a kind of magic here; in their little picnic shelter surrounded by the soft rush of rain falling around them, cut off from the rest of the world.  A kind of magic that had nothing to do with Bokuto’s flickering lights drifting near the ceiling or enchanted buses or hexes or flowering plants that grew out of nothing and everything to do with Yui’s laughter and Bokuto’s whine when Tooru flicked water on his face and Daichi playfully pushing Terushima into the rain and the warmth of Kuroo’s smile.  Magic that had nothing to do with actual magic and everything to do with them simply being here, now, together and so vibrant that Tooru almost wished he could be on the outside looking into their group just to see how they looked.  It made his chest burn a little suddenly with the thought, the need to see how their group looked to others.  To know what the world thought when the eight of them stumbled into a new place.

Then Yui shoved his shoulder and he nearly toppled off the table and into the rain to the chorus of laughter from the rest of them and the burn in his chest shattered, glowing, and spread warmth through the rest of his body.

It didn’t matter what the rest of the world thought, or saw.  Not here with the rain surrounding their shelter like a sheer curtain and making everything beyond it, beyond them, a shimmering mirage.  Right here, right now, they were rulers of their universe.  Kings of this moment in time and that was all that mattered.

 

\--

 

“Oh no no,” Albus rumbled in that way of his, fierceness mostly ruined by the hiccuping noise that ended with a honk of his horn.  “I wouldn’t even let you two near me if I had a flat tire.  Forget about looking under my hood.”

“Come on,” Bokuto whined while Kuroo smiled imploringly. “You can trust us.”

“Excuse me?  Are you mechanics?”  Daichi rolled his eyes.  Great.  First the bus had hiccups and now it was getting sassy.  “Did you go to mechanic school?  I don't think so I don't care how ‘mechanic’ you look with your wrenches and oil stained jeans you are not getting under my hood.  Not even on a second date boys.”

Albus hiccuped again, honking loud enough to startle a flock of sparrows out of a nearby tree, and Daichi glared at Oikawa who was suddenly busy looking incredibly interested in what Ushijima was telling Yui about the museum they were planning on visiting later that day.

 

“Oh this is so embarrassing,” Albus hiccup-honked again.  Terushima glanced at Kenji and stuffed his fist against his lips to avoid laughing.  The last thing they wanted to do was accidentally offend Albus and get locked out in a rest stop.  Again.

“Oh you’re fine, Carl.  Everyone gets hiccups,” Bokuto said consolingly as he patted Albus’s hood.

Daichi went off to get drinks from the vending machine with Ushijima and Kenji sighed as he pulled out his phone.

“I am totally changing my number again I swear.”

“Hello to you too.”

“What now?”

“Any idea how to get rid of hiccups?”  Moniwa sighed.  Kenji was pretty sure he should feel guilty for making him sigh more during this trip than during all their years of high school combined.  But it’s not like any of them could call and ask their parents this stuff.  The last thing any of them wanted was a lecture now that they were grown adults.  More or less.

“Human, bus, or other?”

“Um.  Bus?”

“Not making it sentient in the first place.”

“Yeah, well, Oikawa already messed that step up.”

“Well then it sucks to be you.  I don’t know.”  Kenji groaned and dropped to the shade next to Albus.  Could you scare the hiccups out of a minibus?  How do you even scare a bus at all?  “I just want to know how you got this new number and why I keep getting dragged into this stuff when I’m  _ not even on this trip _ .”

Maybe a bigger bus popping out of the shadows?  But that would require a bigger bus and shadows to hide it in.  Another hiccupy-honk made him cringe when it drew the attention of a family of five heading into the rest stop.  Terushima waved at them with nonchalance that Kenji envied a little considering they were sitting next to a hiccup-honking bus with Kuroo and Bokuto dressed up like mechanics and now that he thought about it where did they even get the tools from?

“Uh… magic.”  He wasn’t sure if he was answering Moniwa or his own question.  It worked for either really.

“Daichi gave it to you didn’t he?”

“Yeah.  Sad faces work surprisingly well on him.  Terushima taught me that little trick.”

“Lovely.”

 

\--

 

Yui pulled her knees to her chest, loose sweater wrapped around herself, and watched from her perch on the picnic table as Terushima jogged past in a faded and stretched out red sweater that he had nabbed out of Bokuto’s bag earlier that night and that Bokuto had stolen from Kuroo their first night on the road.  Small lights twinkled in the air around him as he dodged Bokuto’s hands and shot away across the gravel lot Albus was parked in.

“I would ask him to give it back,” Kuroo said from beside her as they watched Bokuto give chase and tackle Terushima into the grass on the other side of the lot with a vindictive shout, “but it looks good on him.”

 

\--

 

Daichi stopped halfway across the nearly empty parking lot with his mouth hanging open and a look on his face that was equal parts horror and regret with a dash of unreality mixed in.

“There is what appears to be a unicorn head attached to that building.  It looks like it’s screaming.”  His voice was a little dead sounding and Kuroo had to turn around just to make sure Daichi was fully corporeal.

“That’s because it’s The Screaming Unicorn,” Bokuto announced.  “It’s an ice cream parlor.”

“Nope.”  Daichi spun on his heels and headed back towards Albus.  “Not today.  Not fucking today.”

 

\--

 

Wakatoshi had been lulled to sleep by the steady hum of the tires on the road and the general buzz of his busmates bickering back and forth.  Not loudly.  It was too warm today to really bicker with any additional heat.  It had been a low buzz in the background as he stretched across the small aisle separating the seats behind the driver’s seat, legs propped on the seat across from him and his back on his own seat.  He woke up slowly, like he often did on warm days when everything felt hazy and you just couldn’t really be bothered to move too quickly, and when he finally tripped past the point of still asleep into the category of mostly awake he became aware of a weight settled somewhere near his thighs.

He cracked one eye open and spotted Michimiya sitting on him where he was stretched across the aisle.  It took a few moments of listening to her talking to Terushima about hexes - a subject Wakatoshi himself wasn’t the greatest at and therefore found fascinating to listen to an expert discuss - before he registered that the comforting hum of the bus had quieted down and they were, in fact, parked somewhere that was mostly shaded.

“Come on!”  Bokuto shouted from somewhere outside the bus and Wakatoshi was sure if he hadn’t been awake already that alone would have done it.  Bokuto really didn’t understand the concept of volume some days.  “Give me one good reason not to jump in the lake!”

He spotted some of Phil’s vines creeping over the edge of the driver’s seat and was pleased that someone had thought enough to move Phil into a patch of sunlight.  Phil loved being in the sun.  It made his flowers bloom extra bright when he got to soak up the light.  He’d have to try and remember to find out who it was and thank them.

“A reason other than the sign that says ‘No Swimming’ and the one that looks like it’s saying something about a lake monster?”  Daichi’s voice sounded like he had been suffering this same conversation, or some variation of it or another, for a very long time.  Wakatoshi figured that being friends with Kuroo or Bokuto for any length of time could do that to a person.  He wouldn’t know since he still wasn’t entirely sure he was friends with them yet.

Friendship was a tricky thing that he was still working on with this group.  He’d get there eventually.  For now he would be content to be stretched across the aisle of their minibus, warm and sleepy and being used as a bench, listening to everyone chatter and laugh and let himself ride on that feeling of companionship.

 

\--

 

“I scream, you scream,” Bokuto’s voice rang out through the bus.  Daichi had a death grip on the wheel to keep himself from physically beating his head against the window instead of just imagining himself doing it.

“Stop.  Just… stop.”  Daichi pleaded to whoever was listening.  Which was pretty much nobody except maybe Albus who gave a sympathetic rev of his engine as Bokuto started singing the Screaming Unicorn Ice Cream Parlor’s signature song.  Again.

For the fifth time that afternoon.

This time he got Kuroo and Yui to join him.

“This really isn’t what I imagined when I imagined road trip sing alongs,” Daichi muttered to himself as they repeated the song.

 

\--

 

“You said you were good.  You said, and I quote, ‘No I can go for at least another fifty miles or so.’  That was a whole twenty miles ago.”

“Hey.  I’m an enchanted bus,” Albus snapped back, engine humming irritatedly as cars blew past them without even slowing, “what do I know?”

Daichi whined and buried his face in his hands.  He was arguing with a bus.  This was his life.  This was his summer.

Why did he ever agree to go along with this ridiculous road trip idea?

 

\--

 

Tetsurou was perfectly content to just sprawl across his seat and listen to Michimiya and Ushijima discussing the practical benefits of unicorn tears in salves behind him and Oikawa and Futakuchi across from him arguing about whether the shirt Oikawa was currently wearing belonged to Futakuchi or not and the general hum and buzz of the rest of the bus’s occupants.  It was warm in the bus and they had the windows open and the roar of the air and the road and the summer was enough to make Tetsurou’s eyelids droop.

Even the weight of Bokuto dropping himself onto Tetsurou’s seat and propping himself on Tetsurou’s knee to include himself in Michimiya and Ushijima’s discussion barely disturbed Tetsurou.

Then Bokuto took a deep breath.

“Guys imagine this: Velocicorns.”

Tetsurou’s eyes popped open and he stared at the side of his best friend’s face as he leaned forward and nodded eagerly.

“Like a velociraptor with a horn?”  Yui asked cautiously.  Tetsurou loved Michimiya, he really did.  She was amazing and smart and crazy good with hexes and one time at the gym she out-benched him by like fifty pounds and she scared him a little sometimes.  But she really didn’t need to encourage Bokuto.

“No like a unicorn but with a velociraptor head and teeth and all that.”

Tetsurou was about to break in and somehow derail the conversation when Ushijima hummed thoughtfully.

“Okay.  I am imagining them.”

Tetsurou caught Oikawa’s gaze on the other side of the bus and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the way Oikawa’s mouth was hanging open in surprise as his eyes darted from Tetsurou to Bokuto and then, most likely, Ushijima and back again, bewilderment growing on his face.

“I wish I had one,” Bokuto sighed.  “I would name it Button.”

Bokuto and Ushijima started discussing the pros and cons of a velocicorn and what it might eat and how to best take care of it and how big it might be and Tetsurou shook his head.  Then he squinted across the aisle.

“Oikawa.”  Oikawa looked away from Bokuto and Ushijima and made a questioning face at Tetsurou when Tetsurou glared at him.  “Why the hell are you wearing my pants?”

  
  


Tetsurou blinked groggily and buried his face into Yuuji’s stomach, which he had claimed as his pillow when they all sprawled together under the stars.  When he heard the sound that had woken him up come again he groaned.

“Please tell me they didn’t actually manage to like conjure up a freaking velocicorn.  Someone?  Anyone?”

Daichi grumbled something from behind them and Kuroo turned his head enough to see Daichi’s face smushed into Michimiya’s shoulder with Master Spots curled up near their heads and just beyond them was a dark shadowy figure.  About as big as an average sized dog with a long slender horn atop its head and sharp teeth glistening in the moonlight.  It tilted its head and let out an unholy screeching roaring whinny noise and Bokuto cackled gleefully from where he appeared to practically be sitting in Ushijima’s lap as they watched the velocicorn - their freaking literal brainchild - prance around in the moonlight.

“Come ‘ere Button,” Bokuto called out.  “Who’s a fierce little velocicorn?  You are!”

“I think we should just be thankful that we have two of the most powerful mages in our country with us and they choose to use their power to make shit like this real and not, like, try to take over the world,” Yuuji said before rolling over and tucking himself against Futakuchi’s back.

Tetsurou wasn’t sure what was worse: losing Yuuji’s stomach as a pillow or listening to Bokuto cooing at the velocicorn and it screeching back at him all night.

 

\--

 

“Sing along!”  Bokuto cried out gleefully.

“No,” Daichi stated.  “Just.  No.”

“It wasn’t gonna be the ice cream song this time I swear.”

“No, Bokuto.  No.  Your sing along privileges have been revoked unless a classic rock song comes on.  Then you may join in.” 

“You are no fun at all sometimes, Daichi.”  Bokuto frowned and dropped into the seat next to Ushijima.  “Isn’t that right, Ushiwaka?”

Ushijima turned around to glance at Kuroo.  “Is there a time frame as to when he will start using my actual name?”

Kuroo grinned at him.  “I am afraid you’re most likely going to be ‘Ushiwaka’ for the rest of Bokuto’s life.”  Ushijima considered this for a few moments before sighing and giving Kuroo a nod.

“I suppose you are right.”

Bokuto, completely uncaring that Ushijima was essentially ignoring him, reached across the aisle to try to tug a sock from Button’s mouth.  Apparently, as they had discovered rather quickly, velocicorns had a fondness for chewing on dirty socks.

“Spit that out,” Bokuto scolded, “you don’t even know where that’s been.”

“Hey,” Terushima exclaimed, “that’s my sock.”

“See?”  Bokuto tugged on the sock again.  “You really don’t want to be eating anything that’s been on his foot.  Just trust me on this, Button.”

“Does anyone know why these are the only clean clothes left in my bag?”

Everyone looked over to Futakuchi.  Who raised a pair of lime green jeans and a pale salmon polo shirt into the air with a very confused look on his face.

“Does anyone know why you even own those clothes?”  Oikawa asked from his perch near the back of the bus.  “Because I, for one, find those offensive to my finer fashion sense.”

Oikawa.  Who at that particular moment (at just after sunrise and breakfast at the rest stop’s picnic tables) was wearing a pair of Daichi's shoes, Kuroo's pants, Futakuchi's t-shirt, Bokuto's jacket, and one of the stocking caps that Terushima had in his bag.

“Oikawa,” Yui said.  “Maybe if you were wearing your own clothes we could trust your fashion advice.  But I’m pretty sure every outfit you’ve worn has been a mismatched mess of stuff you’ve borrowed from someone else.”

“I think it might be time to find a laundromat.”  Daichi pulled out his phone and poked at it a bit.  “We could all probably use a washing machine by now.”

“Laundromat?”  Bokuto whipped around in his seat, nearly elbowing Ushijima in his excitement.  “Like a  _ magic _ laundromat?”

“No, Bokuto,” Daichi replied, still skimming through his phone looking for the nearest laundromat that would be big enough for all eight of them to be using at one time with a lot big enough for Albus to park in.  “A regular laundromat will do.”

“Booooooooo.”

“I think I - ”

“Boooooo.” Bokuto interrupted.

“I found -”

“Booooo,” Bokuto said again, face serious.

“I -” 

“Boooooo.”

“That’s real mature, Bokuto.”  Daichi raised his voice to be heard as Bokuto continued to draw out the word.  Yui was a little impressed at Bokuto’s lung capacity.  “You know what?  We’re leaving.  Hope everyone has their stuff.”

Yui should probably have felt worse for Daichi.  He was a dear friend and really he just wanted to make sure they all made it back home safe in the end.  But honestly.  The guy needed to loosen up a little.  He was going to have wrinkles and gray hairs by the time they even made it halfway through the summer at this rate.

Daichi tried to talk a couple more times with Bokuto booing over him almost gleefully before he just gave up and focused on the road.  Albus gave a sympathetic rev of his engine and Yui smiled.

She would make sure Daichi let loose and had fun on this trip if it was the last thing she did this summer.

Yui hopped over the boys sprawled across the aisle, ruffled Bokuto’s hair with a wink, and slid into the seat behind Daichi.

“Good morning, Dai.”

“Morning, Yui.  ‘Good’ is debateable.”

“You know Bokuto just likes picking on you cause you’re easy to rile, right?”

“Doesn’t really help.  But yes I know.”

She sighed and tapped the top of his head gently for a moment, plans flitting through her mind like hummingbirds, and then sighed at him.

“You need to loosen up, Dai.  Embrace summer.”  Yui slid her round white framed sunglasses off the top of her head and onto Daichi’s face, knowing he wouldn’t take his hands off the wheel to try to stop her.  “Step one: summer-up your wardrobe.”  She grinned as he glanced at her over the side of the sunglasses now on his face and rolled his eyes before glancing back at the road.

 

 

“I… I can not be seen in public with you.”

“Aw come on, Oikawa.  Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“Somewhere far away where the people I am surrounded by actually have taste.”

Yui looked over the boys as they slid out of the bus and stretched, checking pockets for wallets and digging sunglasses out of bags before heading across the parking lot to the little strip mall they had parked near.  The plan was to grab some quick snacks at one of the stores and then head to the laundromat near the center of the strip mall.

“I, for one, like the jeans,” Albus rumbled from behind them, flapping his doors open to get their attention, “and Phil made a flower bracelet for Kenji.”

Futakuchi leaned back inside and laughed when he found a small pastel colored bracelet made of fresh flowers sitting on the seat next to Phil’s pot.  He gently nudged Button and Master Spots away from the bracelet and slipped it onto his wrist.

“Thank you, Phil, and thank you for letting me know, Albus.”

Albus rumbled happily and shut his doors behind Futakuchi.

Yui tugged Oikawa along, hooking their elbows together as he muttered to himself and glared at Futakuchi.

“It’s just not right,” Oikawa bit out.  “I mean, who looks good in lime green jeans and a salmon polo shirt?  That’s just… unfair.”

Yui found it funny that it was Futakuchi’s outfit that seemed to offend Oikawa’s fashion sense the most.  Not the fact that Daichi was still wearing Yui’s white sunglasses and one of Terushima’s stocking caps; or that Ushijima was wearing a Hawaiian shirt over his “I Saw the World’s Largest Ball of Yarn and All I Got Was This Shirt” t-shirt with khaki shorts, sandals with socks, and a fanny pack; or that Terushima was wearing some of the tackiest rainbow colored shorts Yui had ever seen.  No it was the fact that Futakuchi actually managed to look decent in his lime green jeans that frustrated Oikawa.  It frustrated him to the point that his mutters turned dark.

Terushima yelped from behind them.  Yui looked back and sighed when she saw a trash can rolling after him attempting to crash into his heels no matter how he lept away.

“Oikawa,” she chided.  “Stop passive-aggressively enchanting things to attack Yuuji just because you don’t like Futakuchi’s outfit.

“I would tell you to make me but I am nowhere near that dumb.”  Oikawa took a deep breath and shook his head.  Then he gave Yui a bright smile.  “I apologize.  I just don’t understand  _ how  _ it works and you know how I am when that happens.”

“Yes,” Yui grinned.  “I know how you are when someone pulls off an outfit better than you.”

Oikawa stopped and let out an offended sound.  “Rude, Michimiya.  Rude.”  Terushima bumped into him and hooked his arm around the back of Oikawa’s neck to continue dragging him towards the little grocery store near the far end of the strip mall.

 

 

“In honor of Futakuchi’s bravery in going out in public with that outfit and our own bravery in being seen with him, well, Michimiya’s and my own bravery for being seen in public with any of you, I, the great and generous Oikawa Tooru, have bought us a little souvenir today.”  As he spoke Oikawa pressed something into each person’s hand and closed their fingers into a fist around each tiny object.  Once he finished he took a deep breath and nodded once.  “Go ahead and look.”

All seven of his companions opened their fingers and looked down at the object in their hands.

“Are these… friendship bracelets?”  Futakuchi asked cautiously as he eyed the bright green braided bracelet in his hand.

“They’re charms.  Apparently they have good luck and protection weaved into them or something like that,” Oikawa said flippantly as he slipped his own - a silvery braid that stood out against his skin - onto his wrist.  “I don’t know, really.  I just wanted this one but they came eight to a pack so I had to buy them all.”

Each bracelet was neatly braided in a different color with small silver and gold stars along the threads.  Yui slipped her dark purple bracelet on before giving Oikawa a hug and heading back towards the washer she had her clothes in.  Bokuto smacked Kuroo in the arm until he helped him get the clasp of his golden braided bracelet set to the right spot and then he helped Kuroo with his orange bracelet.  Terushima settled his new turquoise bracelet in between the black strap of his watch and the thin leather bracelet he already had on his wrist.  Daichi took his light blue bracelet towards the washers to have Yui help him put it on.

Ushijima stared down at the burgundy bracelet in his hand with a slightly confused look on his face as the others went back to whatever laundry tasks they had been in the middle of before Oikawa had come through the door.  He lightly ran his finger along the braid and then looked at Oikawa.

“Did you enchant these yourself?  I don’t remember seeing any charmed or enchanted jewelry for sale anywhere.”

Oikawa sneered at him.  “You think I’d enchant a bracelet for you Ushiwaka?”

“I think,” Ushijima said quietly, “you’d do anything for someone who you consider worth your time and anyone who isn’t you wouldn’t even speak to.”  Oikawa blinked up at him but before he could open his mouth Ushijima continued, loud enough for Kuroo to hear and snicker.  “I hope whoever enchanted these before you bought them added a protective enchantment to keep small animals from trying to eat them.  And Terushima.”

Terushima looked up from where he was leaning against a dryer, bracelet already delicately stretched from his wrist and held between his teeth, with wide eyes at the sound of his name.

“Terushima,” Oikawa scolded as he hurried over to bat at Terushima’s wrist, “you’re worse than a child get that out of your mouth.”

 

\--

 

Music was playing in the background.  Something quiet - hushed words that you could barely make out but felt a little like childhood and hazy afternoons with cool floors beneath your feet - that slipped between your ribs like a dagger and kept you from breathing too deeply in the cool fluorescent lighting.  Aisle after aisle of perfectly arranged items seemed to stretch away from them into infinity; or the dairy section, whichever they happened to stumble across first.

“‘I don’t care that it’s 2AM,’” Kuroo grumbled in a growly rendition of Oikawa’s wide awake voice from the bus not long ago, “‘we need pie!’  Who the hell  _ needs _ pie at two in the morning?  You know what’s needed at 2AM?  Sleep!  That’s what!”

Yuuji hummed a sleepy agreement as he rubbed at his eyes and smacked his lips.  They both blinked rapidly as Bokuto rolled past them on the back of a shopping cart.

“Did you see…?”

Kuroo sighed.  “Yeah.”

“Should we…?”

“Probably.”

“Where’s Daichi when you need him?”

“Blissfully asleep.  Lucky bastard.”

There was always something a little disconcerting about grocery stores.  Yuuji had decided this years and years ago.  Something about the lighting and the endless boxes neatly aligned with the occasional gaping hole where one was missing.  He had once been convinced a goblin lived in the soup aisle of his local grocery store.  A child eating goblin who kept kids behind the soup cans for a midnight snack.  Which probably didn’t help with the whole grocery stores being disconcerting thing.

Anyway.  Grocery stores were disconcerting.  Even more so when they were deserted at two in the morning with their skeleton crew suspiciously absent.

“Do we need anything for our little creatures while we’re here?”

“Well I doubt they have Velocicorn kibble in the pet food aisle but Ushijima did mention something about buying a couple large bottles of water to use for Phil the next time we stopped somewhere.”

They wandered until they found the bottled water.  Their footsteps were muffled as they shuffled down the glossy aisles in search of Oikawa and Bokuto.

It was also something about the air, Yuuji decided, it was so cool yet he couldn’t hear a single hum of a fan or air unit running.  Any noises they might have made were lost under that soft music and the far away beep of the register as a cashier rang up another customer.  It seemed strange to know other people were in this place at this time of night.  The lonely hollow beeping as each item scanned seemed to chase them down and echo in their ears as they wandered the aisles.

Yuuji stopped in front of a pegged wall of snacks, staring kind of blankly at a bag of trail mix that claimed it could double as material for summonings, and Kuroo paused near the end of the aisle, cautiously glancing to the sides and rubbing his cheek against his shoulder.  A muffled yelp of glee from the next aisle had them glancing at each other and sighing.

“Oh my gosh look at this, Oikawa!”  Yuuji grabbed a bag of trail mix that had extra raisins in it - because no one else liked raisins so at least he’d get maybe a quarter of the bag this time - and followed Kuroo into the next aisle.  “It’s an oven mitt shaped like an owl!  Isn’t that so cool?”

Kuroo stared in disbelief at their cart, turned to Yuuji who just shrugged, and then looked back at the cart.  It was piled high with stuff.  In the five minutes or less that it had been - or maybe it had been five hours time always seemed rather grainy and slippery in a grocery store - since Bokuto had rolled past them he and Oikawa had managed to fill their cart.

For the life of him Yuuji could not figure out three things.  One: why Bokuto needed an oven mitt shaped like an owl and was insisting that Kuroo let him buy it.  Two: why they needed a 30 count package of toilet paper when they had no bathroom on their bus and used public restrooms all the time.  Three: why a grocery store appeared to have three foot tall plastic flamingos for sale.

“I am not explaining the flamingo to Daichi,” was the only thing Kuroo finally managed to say before he turned away from them and lead the way to the checkout counter.

 

\--

 

“This is supposed to be a cure for my headache?”  Oikawa poked at the small jar with the tip of his finger and stiffened when the dust inside changed colors.

“Why is it suddenly… purple?”  Terushima leaned over Oikawa’s shoulder and squinted at the jar.  “And why does it look like glitter?  Are you trying to get Oikawa to eat glitter?”

“Nope.  No way.  I absolutely refuse.  I am not touching that let alone ingesting it.”

Wakatoshi sighed at them both and carefully picked the jar up, shaking it gently until the dust cloud inside turned a soft blue.

“You do not ingest it, Oikawa.  Nor do you have to touch it if you don’t want to.  If you’ll allow me I can apply it for you.”

Oikawa’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.  “I don’t know…” he said warily, watching as Terushima plucked the jar out of Wakatoshi’s hand and opened it to peer inside it.

“You said your headache was behind your eyes, correct?  Mostly from lack of sleep?”  Oikawa nodded slowly.  “This is something my father showed me how to make and use when I was younger.  It’s a family recipe of sorts.”

“It smells safe enough,” Terushima announced.  “Just let him use it on you Oikawa.  You’re miserable and annoying when you’re like this.”

Wakatoshi nodded in agreement.  It was never a pleasant thing to see one of his companions in discomfort.  Especially if there was something he could do about it.

Oikawa dropped onto the ground next to Albus with a huff and waved his hand at Wakatoshi.  “Fine.  But if you make me go blind or something I’m going to get you back.”

That was fair enough so Wakatoshi nodded again.

“Close your eyes.”  He dipped his thumb into the dust.  “Try not to squirm too much.  This may feel cold.”  He waited until Oikawa complied and then carefully ran his thumb against Oikawa’s closed eyelids until Oikawa sighed and flopped backwards onto the ground.

Terushima inched towards them and nudged Oikawa with his foot.

“Is he dead?”

“I hope not,” Wakatoshi replied.  “I really would not want to be haunted by him.”

Wakatoshi took a seat on the ground near Oikawa’s shoulder, glass jar tucked back into his pocket, and began humming to himself.  It was actually a fairly peaceful day, if a bit humid, and Wakatoshi was finally starting to understand the joy of just relaxing.  No classes to attend or spells to practice just this group of people who he had come to think of as his friends.

Albus honked suddenly and Terushima spun around to stare at the bus.

“Excuse you,” Albus rumbled, “did I give you permission to push my horn?”  Oikawa twitched on the ground but otherwise didn’t even make a move to indicate he heard the noise.  “Bokuto,” Albus rumbled again.  “Do not press my-”

**_HONK_ **

“Were you humming a hair band ballad?  Are you trying to woo me Ushiwaka?”  Oikawa patted him on the knee before rolling onto his side and practically curling around where Wakatoshi was sitting.  “The wooing won’t work but the song is good.  Makes me feel sleepy.”

“Bokuto,” Albus warned.

**_HONK_ **

“ _ Though I tried not to hurt you _ ,” Wakatoshi sang softly and Oikawa snorted at him, “ _ Though I tried _ .”

They could hear Kuroo somewhere inside the bus cackling and Terushima settled himself onto the ground on the other side of Wakatoshi from Oikawa.  Kuroo called out something to Bokuto that none of them listened to.

“ _ But I guess that’s why they say _ …”

**_HONK HONK HONK_ **

Bokuto tumbled out of the bus with a laugh.

“I feel like this should really be weirder to me than it is,” Terushima muttered.

 

\--

 

Michimiya looked around the bus in awe.  It had been one hex.  One hex that Terushima had wanted to practice and Kuroo had agreed to be the test subject of.  The fact that it had gone  _ this _ wrong was impressive.

“Just, please, let me at the window,” Oikawa whined.  Ushijima held on to him tighter.

“Please do not lick Albus.  I do not think they would appreciate it much.”  Ushijima grunted when Oikawa elbowed him but didn’t let him go.

Terushima stared across the bus at her, eyes wide, as he gnawed at his turquoise bracelet.  “This was not supposed to happen.”  Kuroo growled and a bubble slid from between his canines.  “Not at all.  What do we do?  What did  _ I _ do?”

Michimiya shook her head, stuffing her fist against her lips to keep her laughter back.  “I have no idea how you managed this.  Any of this.”

Kuroo barked from his seat and Bokuto’s long green head swung towards him.

“Moniwa, hey.”  Futakuchi was crouched in the driver’s seat with Phil’s pot sitting on the dashboard.  Phil’s vines were growing thorns as they crept along the glass and inched towards the floor where Button and Master Spots were staring up at Phil with hungry looks.  “Yeah no small talk what do you know about hexes mixing with enchantments?  Because we have a slight situation.”

Kuroo shook his head and growled again, bubbles floating from his mouth.  Michimiya patted Kuroo’s head and scratched behind his ears with a smile; he actually made a pretty adorable dog.

“Moniwa?”  Futakuchi pulled his phone away with a frown.  “He’s still connected,” he said to Michimiya.  “Moniwa?  You there?”

Button screeched and hopped in the air to try and snap at Phil who retaliated by opening up a bunch of flowers and tossing pollen into the air.  Button sneezed.  So did Oikawa.

“Please stop struggling Oikawa.  You can not lick the windows.”  Oikawa sneezed again, nearly cracking the back of his head into Ushijima’s nose.  Bokuto snapped at Ushijima’s ankle.  “I understand that you are currently an alligator, Bokuto.  But please refrain from biting me.  I can’t play sports with you later if you hurt my ankle.”  The alligator in question looked up at him and snapped again, this time well away from his ankle.  “Thank you.”

Kuroo let out a squeaky growly hiccup as bubbles streamed from his mouth.

“Moniwa?  Are you… are you laughing at me?”  Futakuchi let out a frustrated noise.  “Stop laughing at me.  Stop it-”  Michimiya saw his eyes go wide.  “Oh shit.”

“I was asleep for less than an hour.  What.  The.  Fuck.”

Michimiya giggled without really meaning to and Dachi stepped into the bus and glared at her.  Which just made her giggle harder.  Daichi glared around the bus and then at her again and Kuroo hopped up onto the back seat with her and flopped protectively across her lap, little hiccups and bubbles gurgling from his lips.

“Thank you Kuroo but Daichi doesn’t scare me.”  Bokuto turned on the floor and snapped in Daichi’s direction, whipping his tail against Ushijima’s ankles and nearly knocking him over in the process and making him lose his grip on Oikawa.  Who immediately shoved away from him and launched himself towards the side of the bus, tongue hanging out to lick the glass.

“Why is Oikawa licking the window?  Why is Kuroo a dog?  Why is… what is… what the fuck?”

Michimiya looked at Terushima.  Who turned and looked at Futakuchi.  Who looked back at him, refusing to make eye contact with a pissed off Daichi.

“Excuse me Oikawa is  _ what _ ?”  Moniwa’s voice floated up from Futakuchi’s phone.

 

 

“Hey, Daichi,” Michimiya dropped into the seat behind the driver’s seat.

“No.”  Daichi’s hands were tight on the wheel and she sighed at him.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.  We got it all sorted out in the end.”

“Not that big of a deal?  Yui.  Oikawa was trying to lick the windows.  Bokuto was an alligator.  Kuroo was hiccupping bubbles and he was a dog!  That’s not that big of a deal to you?”  Daichi glanced at her and then back to the road.  “Our clothes are all covered in drool and spit and dog hair and pollen and who knows what else.  One of us could have been seriously hurt or permanently changed.  We’re not kids anymore, Yui.”

“Yeah but we’re not dead yet either, Dai.”  She reached around the headrest to pat his cheeks and shook her head.  “I understand you feel responsible for us and we all appreciate it.  But this trip was supposed to be about us all having fun.  Seeing the world a bit.  Doing dumb stuff that we can talk about in a couple years and all laugh at because ‘wow we really didn’t know better did we?’ and all that.”

“I would like to get back home in one piece.”

“And I would like you to just have fun on this trip.”  She lightly smacked his cheek.  “The two are not mutually exclusive you know.  Sing.  Play a game.  Turn Oikawa’s shampoo into mud for all I care.  Just… have fun.”

Daichi sighed like the world was ending and turned off the road into a parking lot.

“We’re here,” he announced.

Michimiya leaned forward to look out the windshield and laughed.

SUDS ‘N STUFF was plastered across the glass window of the laundromat a few feet away and the words rippled like water as a fish swam across the window.

“Magical laundromat,” Bokuto whispered almost reverently.  “It’s so cool.”

 

Bokuto sat in front of a bank of dryers, watching the images on the round doors - beaches and rivers and fish tanks and bubbles and clouds and more -  ripple and move and change before his very eyes.  The laundromat was empty save for them, a little surreal in it’s magicalness even for him, but it was amazing.  The soft hums and swishing of the washers, the grumble and clanks of the dryers, the almost damp air scented with fresh laundry soap and not so fresh socks.  He barely even blinked when Terushima slid by, shoeless for whatever reason, and ran into a nearby laundry cart.

“Be careful,” Daichi scolded from the other side of the laundromat where he had just finished stuffing his clothes into washers.  He dropped the lid with a bang and shook his head.  “I am not going to be responsible for any concussions or injuries.”

“But Daichi.”  Terushima frowned as he righted himself.  “I love you.  Don’t you love me too?”

“I tolerate you.”

“I love you,” Terushima stated again.  “I’d do anything to prove it.”

Daichi’s eyes widened.  “No.”  He pointed at Terushima.  “No,” he said sternly, already recognizing the twinkle in Terushima’s eyes.

“ _ I would do anything for love _ ,” Terushima started singing softly and Yui hopped onto a nearby washing machine with a snort.  This was going to be good.  “ _ I’d run right into hell and back _ .”

“Terushima.  Stop.”  Daichi crossed his arms.  He was trying to pull his captainly in charge tone and stance which Yui found hilarious because they were all captains of various teams and clubs and classes so, really, it wasn’t going to work.  He was adorable for trying though.

Bokuto looked over with a grin.  

“ _ I’d never lie to you and that’s a fact, _ ” Terushima continued.  The rest of the group barely stopped in their conversations and laundry duties as Terushima slid around the laundromat and sang.

Oikawa popped another mint into his mouth as Terushima slid up to him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

“ _ Some days it don’t come easy _ ,” he sang, hand on his heart.  “ _ Some days it don’t come hard.  Some days it don’t come at all _ .”

After a few more lines he spun around without missing a beat and dropped against the washer Yui was seated on.

_ “Some days you’re carved in ice. _ _ Some nights you're like nothing I've ever seen before or will again. _ ”  She pretended to swoon, hand on her forehead as she fell to the side.

He danced over to Kuroo near the vending machine, Futakuchi in the chairs by the door.  He sang to Ushijima, who politely paused sorting his laundry to listen.  He dropped across Bokuto’s lap and sang up to him while he laughed.

Then he hopped up and launched himself at Daichi, sliding across the floor on his knees so he could bump into Daichi’s leg.

“ _ I would do anything for love.  Anything you've been dreaming of, but I just won't do that. _ ”  He grinned up at Daichi, wiggling his eyebrows expectantly.

Daichi took a deep breath and they all seemed to pause, breaths held in anticipation of Daichi’s impeding scolding.

“ _ Some days I pray for silence _ .” His voice filled the laundromat, low and gravelly and somewhat threatening.  “ _ Some days I pray for soul. _ ”

Oikawa squeaked and smacked his hand over his mouth, eyes wide.  Kuroo stood up slowly, appreciative look on his face, from where he had been lounging against the vending machine.

“ _ Some days I pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll _ ,” Terushima crooned back.

“ _ Some nights I lose the feeling.  Some nights I lose control. _ ”  Daichi stared at Terushima, almost daring him to continue.

“ _ Some nights I just lose it all when I watch you dance and the thunder rolls _ ,” they sang together.

Bokuto burst out laughing after a minute of them staring at each other and hopped to his feet to go sit beside Yui on her washer so he could have a front row seat for the rest of the song.

  
  


 

“ _ No I won’t…. do... that. _ ”  Terushima’s voice hung in the air, heavy with the petal fresh scent of laundry soap, and he collapsed across the chairs in the front of the laundromat and across Futakuchi’s lap.

Yui was the first to start clapping and Terushima stood up to take a bow as his washing machine buzzed that it’s cycle was complete.

  
  


“I still just can’t believe you actually sang along with him.”  Kuroo stuffed his clothes into a dryer.

“How do you even survive,” Daichi asked as he reached past Kuroo, ignoring his frown, and took about half the clothes out to put in a different dryer.  “You can’t just shove it all into one machine and hope for the best.”

“I can do whatever I wanna do with my laundry, Dad.  I am an adult.”

“The dad thing, really?”  Daichi raised an eyebrow.  “Grow up, Kuroo.”

Kuroo grinned at him and leaned in close.  “ _ Oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one _ ,” his voice pitched into something softer than usual.  Not quite as high pitched Daichi knew the song was normally sung in but surprisingly decent sounding.  “ _ But girls they wanna have fun. _ ”

Oikawa draped himself against Kuroo’s back and joined in.  “ _ Oh girls just wanna have.... _ ”

“I am not singing again,” Daichi declared before sitting down next to Ushijima near the back of the laundromat.  “Once today was more than enough.”

“ _ When the workin’ day is done _ ,” Kuroo sang.  “ _ Oh girls, they wanna have fun.  Ho oh girls just wanna have- _ ”

“ _ Fun, they want, _ ” Oikawa cut in, “ _ wanna have fun, oh girls, wanna have- _ ”

 

“You have a very good singing voice,” Ushijima told Daichi as they watched Kuroo and Oikawa dancing around the laundromat singing together and to each other.  “Had you ever considered joining a choir or band?  Perhaps the musical production the theatre group puts on?”

“Not really.  I enjoy singing along to songs well enough.  But I don’t think I could ever actually sing in front of people.”  Ushijima looked at him a moment before gesturing around the laundromat to where the others were spread out.  “I mean in front of people.  An audience.”  Ushijima shook his head in confusion.  “You guys are friends.  It’s okay to make an idiot of yourself in front of friends.  Doing it in front of a room full of strangers is a different story.”

Ushijima looked down at the burgundy bracelet on his wrist and then to the light blue one wrapped around Daichi’s wrist.  “Friends,” he said, testing the weight of the word in his mouth, the taste of the letters.

 

\--

 

“What are you talking about, Daichi?  I am very mature.”

Ushijima nodded solemnly from his spot under the tree nearby.  “He is very mature, Sawamura.”

“See?”  Kuroo grinned.  “Ushijima understands.”

“He is mature by the definition he is a full grown adult,” Ushijima added, eyes on the book in his lap, “even if not by other definitions.”

Daichi looked from where Oikawa was asleep with a permanent marker mustache drawn on his face and angry eyebrows scribbled on top of his own, to the markers in Kuroo and Bokuto’s hands, and then to the sky.  As if it would have any answers for him.

“You know what,” he finally said, “I don’t care.  You can deal with Oikawa when he wakes up.  I’m going back to playing basketball with the others.”

“Is he sick?” Bokuto asked, still crouched on the ground next to Oikawa.  “He didn’t lecture us at all.”

Kuroo shrugged and dropped down to continue drawing the glasses around Oikawa’s closed eyes.

 

 

Daichi and Yui were ahead, ten points to Futakuchi and Terushima’s seven, when Oikawa’s screech cut through the park and made Daichi shoot the ball somewhere into the next court in surprise.

“It’s not coming off!”  

Bokuto and Kuroo’s cackling could be heard all the way across the park.  The others looked to Daichi and he shook his head.

“I told them,” he said in explanation when Yui asked if he was going to help.  “I told them that they could deal with him.”

Yui grinned at him and jumped onto his back with a laugh, arms looping around his neck as he hooked his hands under her thighs.  “That’s the spirit, Dai.  Have fun.  Be adventurous.”

“Give you a piggyback ride?”  He asked blandly.

“Give me a piggyback ride!”

“Me too!”  Terushima yelled and before Daichi could even turn around Futakuchi was groaning.

Yui laughed in his ear and leaned forward, throwing him off balance so she could high five Terushima who had one arm wrapped around Futakuchi’s neck and his legs wrapped around Futakuchi’s waist.

“Race?”  Yui grinned in challenge at Terushima.

“Race,” he called back.

“I don’t want to-” Daichi started but Futakuchi took off across the court, faster than Daichi would have expected him to be able to.

“Losers buy the winners lunch,” Terushima yelled over his shoulder as Futakuchi booked it towards Albus.

“Oh I don’t think so,” Daichi growled and took off after them, Yui clinging to his shoulders and laughing.

 

\--

 

Bokuto glanced up from his phone with a frown.

“Are you feeling okay, Ushiwaka?”

Ushijima blinked a few times and shook his head slowly.  The sun was beating down on him and he felt like he was going to melt onto the sidewalk.  It didn’t help that he hadn’t eaten much for breakfast that morning - Oikawa had taken half of his breakfast before he had even gotten a chance to even sit down with it - and had only had a quick snack while their group had been out shopping.

“I don’t really feel well right now to be honest,” he said quietly.

“Sit down.”  Bokuto waved him closer.

“The bench is filled with bags and you were tired as well.  Even if you take the bags off it’s barely big enough for the both of us.  I’ll stand it’s alright.”

Bokuto frowned some more and glanced around.  The bench he was sitting on was the only one in the shade that he could see and Ushijima was right, he was exhausted after staying up with Oikawa all night - he had no idea how Oikawa managed to run on so little sleep most of the time - and the bench was fairly small, barely big enough for all the bags Bokuto and Ushijima had offered to carry for the others and Bokuto.

“Oh,” he said, “just sit on my lap.”

“Won’t I crush you?”

“No?  You’re not that much heavier or taller than me.  Just, here.”  Bokuto shuffled some bags towards the edge of the bench and indicated his lap.  “Sit.  It’ll be fine.”

Ushijima was suspicious but he allowed Bokuto to manhandle him down onto the bench until his legs were draped across Bokuto’s lap and his feet were settled carefully amongst the bags and he was twisted so he was leaning partially against the back of the bench and partially against Bokuto.  It wasn’t the most comfortable but it was in the shade and Bokuto was humming soothingly and tapping a pattern on Ushijima’s thigh and it was relaxing in a strange way.

“Thank you, Bokuto.  Let me know if you are uncomfortable.”

“No problem, Ushiwaka.  Doesn’t bother me at all.  Kuroo and I sit on top of each other all the time.  Even when it’s like a billion degrees out.”  Bokuto grinned up at him and then went back to playing whatever game he had up on his phone and humming.

It wasn’t a million degrees and it wasn’t something Ushijima was all that used to, but he was getting there thanks to his group of friends.

Things became less comfortable a half hour later when he was almost ready to drift off to sleep but was startled back to consciousness by the weight of Terushima landing in his lap almost gracefully.  Or as gracefully as Terushima could manage with a messenger bag flapping around and almost hitting Bokuto in the face.

He dropped his arms across the back of the bench and Ushijima swore he heard the bench creaking under their combined weight.

“So,” Terushima said.  He handed a granola bar to Ushijima and a bottle of water to Bokuto.

“You three are so cute.”  Yui snapped a picture with her phone.  “You ready to head back to Albus?  Daichi should be on his way there already.”

“Carry me, Yui?”  Bokuto pouted at her and held his arms up.  She reached out and pulled him to his feet with a sweet smile.

“No.  But I’ve got the bags this time.”  She sauntered away, arms filled with bags, and left them on the bench.

“She is kind of evil,” Terushima observed.

“Yeah,” Bokuto agreed.  “But that’s part of why we love her.”

 

\--

 

“How did you even manage to get stuck in there?”

Kenji sighed.  “That isn’t the important thing here, Moniwa.  The important thing is I need help.”  He nobly chose to ignore Moniwa’s snort and amused “more than I can give you that’s for sure,” in favor of wiggling again and getting no closer to being free from the weird magical cone of shame that someone hexed him with.  “Preferably before Bokuto finds me.”

“How are you managing to use your phone with a cone of shame around your head… neck… whatever?”

Kenji paused and frowned at the wall in front of him, doing his best to ignore the bright orange cone he could just barely see out of the corner of his eye.  “I am not sending you a picture of me in the cone of shame, Moniwa.”

“No need.”  Kenji sucked in a mortified breath at Oikawa’s voice less than a foot behind him.  “I can do it for you.”

“Ah, hello Satan.  And here I was thinking my day couldn’t suck any more than it already did.”

“Oh no,” Oikawa purred at him and Kenji could almost pretend he didn’t hear Oikawa’s phone camera clicking as he snapped away, “days can always suck more than they already do.  Trust me.”

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that and actually thought ‘oh yeah I’ll totally trust him.’  Wonder why that is?”

“Such a sour outlook on life, Futakuchi.  Must be all those gummies you keep smuggling into the bus.”

“Kenji,” Moniwa scolded him over the phone.  “Really?”

“Will someone just help me out of this dumb hex?”

 

\--

 

“That,” Kuroo observed when they stumbled out of the cheap hotel they had stayed at the night before, “is a lot of flowers.”

A crown of flowers big enough to stretch across Albus’s front windshield and halfway down his roof was settled on the bus.  Bright purple and red and blue flowers covered the majority of the crown and it was woven together with vines.  It almost looked a little unreal this early in the morning and if Kuroo wasn’t used to Bokuto’s floating lights or Terushima’s enchanted body modifications or Futakuchi’s sour gummy obsession he’s think it was weird.  As it was he just wrapped his arm around Yui’s shoulders and buried his face in her hair to hide his yawn when she leaned against the railing beside him to look down to the parking lot.

“Aw,” Yui cooed.  “Albus and Phil are friends.”

 

\--

 

The air was still in the early morning light, almost as if the world was holding its breath as it tiptoed out of dawn and into the day.  It was damp and cool and Yui shivered and tugged her blanket around her more securely as she shuffled out of the bus and to the nearby picnic table.  She dropped her head onto her blanket clad arms and watched the campground slowly come to life around her.

Futakuchi was the first sign of life she saw other than herself and his ragged groan as he drug himself out from under the makeshift shelter they had set up next to Albus reminded her of a zombie movie she had seen last summer and she shivered a little.  Cool, silent, barely awake mornings and zombie groans did not mix well in her opinion, because they mixed  _ too _ well and she could just picture a morning like being used in some horror movie as a kind of lull before the storm sort of setting.

“Can you sound a little less like one of the undead please?”

He stared at her, barely awake enough to stand let alone process odd questions, and then dropped onto the opposite of the picnic table, rubbing at his bleary eyes and yawning.

“Maybe when I start feeling less like one,” he managed around a yawn.

Yui finally pulled herself out of her blanket bundle a few minutes later so she could shuffle back to the bus and grab her toiletry bag and make her way down to the showers.  It wasn’t exactly honeymoon suite level of showering but it beat a quick clean up in a rest stop bathroom any day and by the time she headed back up to their campsite she felt mostly human again.

Futakuchi hadn’t moved much other than to slide over enough for Kuroo to join him on his side of the picnic table.  Kuroo, at least, looked mostly functional and he even smiled at Yui when she got back.

Then he frowned at her and pointed at her accusingly.

“That is my sweater.”  She glanced down at the faded red sweater she was wearing and shrugged.  “It was in Daichi’s bag.  Besides,” she added as she tossed her toiletry bag into the bus and rejoined them at the table, “I doubt any of us still have all our own clothes anymore.”

“What do you think that person’s story is?”

Kuroo and Yui look to where Futakuchi is pointing.  An older lady was sitting at a picnic table a few sites away from them and staring at a box of donuts with a bemused look on her face.  Her turquoise hair shimmered in the morning light as she picked up each donut and studied it before putting it back into the box and moving on to the next one.

“I mean did someone dare her to dye her hair?  Is that naturally it’s color?  Why is she staring so hard at every donut and not eating a single one?”

“Maybe she’s a donut researcher doing a paper on donuts in the wild.”

“What?”  Kuroo asked defensively when they both turned to stare at him.  “You asked.”

“I don’t know why I even expected anything else from you.”  Futakuchi laughed and pointed to another camper rising to meet the day.  “How about him?”

They watched a guy about their age walk a dog past them, both dog and owner with their faces to the sky.

“Extreme dog walker,” Yui declared.  “Has coordinating outfits with his dog.  Never misses out on leg day.”

“Professional fly swatter.”  Kuroo pointed to someone in the distance they could just barely see swatting at something with a rolled up magazine.

“How do you know these people's professions?”  Ushijima settled himself next to Yui, towel hanging around his neck collecting the water from his damp hair.  He too understood the power of having a real shower and was not about to pass up his chance to use one.

“Cause we’re psychic.”  Futakuchi leered at Ushijima and wiggled his eyebrows dramatically enough that Kuroo snorted and started coughing.

“It’s just a joke, Ushijima.  Just a way to pass the time.”  Yui glared at Futakuchi.  “It’s just made up stuff.”

“Yeah.”  Kuroo nodded towards a man old enough to be their father.  “Like him.”  The man was talking on a phone and making twisting gestures with his hand like he was trying to screw or unscrew a lid on a jar.  “Professional light bulb changer.”  Kuroo mimed the action in smaller motions like he was screwing in a light bulb.  “Get it?”

“Ah.  I think I do.”  Ushijima reached for his towel to dry his hair.  “Please continue.”

“Squirrel wrestler,” Futakuchi announced a few minutes later, gesturing to a lady shooing a squirrel back into a tree.

“Cat wrangler,” Yui said with a grin and pointed to a small child stumbling after a cat.

“Mom catcher.”  Kuroo pointed to a pair of children chasing after their mom with determined looks on their faces.

“Flea breeder.”  Futakuchi didn’t even point at anyone or anything.

“Ew,” Yui said.  “Gross.”

The campground was coming to life, slowly but surely, and the sounds of laughter and talking and campfires crackling drifted around them all.  Kuroo and Futakuchi were leaning against each other, still yawning, and Yui had her back pressed against Ushijima’s arm as she straddled the picnic bench and watched the people popping up.  It was much less calm before the zombie storm now and she loved it.

“Professional onion ringer,” Ushijima suddenly stated with a solemn nod.  He was watching someone nearby peeling the skin from an apple with a knife, long circles of skin falling onto the picnic table.

“Perfect,” Futakuchi shook his head fondly and laughed.  “Absolutely perfect.”

 

\--

 

“No Kou don-” Kuroo sighed and dropped his head against the seat of the bus.  “You’re not supposed to eat it.”

“But I’m hungry,” Bokuto whined.  Flat out whined, voice going all high pitched at the end, bouncing in his seat whined.

“It’s like two in the morning.”

“Hunger doesn’t understand the concept of time, Tetsu.”

“By the time we even find anywhere open it’ll be close to three and if you wake Daichi up there’s a chance he’ll kill you.  And me for not stopping you.”

Button growled it’s ferocious velocicorn growl, dropping the sock it had been chewing on to the floor so it could hop over Master Spots - who was calmly, deeply asleep - and nip at Kuroo’s ankle.

“See,” Bokuto pouted, “even my little Button Cakes is hungry.”

“Fine.  Wake up Daichi.  It’s your funeral.”

  
  


The diner had seen some things.  It had seen better days and snappier dressers.  It had seen nymphs and giants and a mermaid or two.  It had seen crying babies and tired mothers and world weary travelers just looking for a moment’s respite.  It had seen shoelaces that could never be knotted and knots that could never be untied.  It had seen forks that wobbled when they got too close to spaghetti and spoons that turned into sieves when put in liquid.  It had seen pranks and hexes and spells and even a used car salesman or two.

So it had definitely seen groups of rowdy teens, high on the thrill of life and friendship and being out on their own for the first time; the last one was always obvious and there was always a certain sheen to the eyes of new travelers that set them apart no matter what.  And this particular group of teens was really nothing all that out of the ordinary, even for being three in the morning with the rain beating down against the windows and creating a warm little bubble.

Okay.  Maybe the diner hadn’t seen everything.  It had never before seen a group of friends that seemed to bring so much light to the world simply by existing together.

Appetizers had been ordered and half devoured.  Sodas and waters and coffees had been distributed and refilled while they waited for their main courses.

“Are we getting desserts?”  Bokuto’s eyes were wide as he looked through the little dessert menu placed in the center of the table.  “Cause these look amazing.”

“How about we worry about eating what we’ve already ordered before we worry about desserts?”  Daichi directed the question to all of them but he was pointedly shifting his gaze between Bokuto and Terushima.

“How did you wake him up and live to tell the tale?”  Kuroo leaned over to ask Bokuto.

Bokuto shrugged.  “No problem.  I woke Yui up and asked her.”

“So how are we splitting this up?  I only ask because I already know we’re all going to be stealing off each others’ plates and sharing anyway.”

Michimiya shook her head, smiling innocently under Daichi’s gaze.  The rest of the group let out private little sighs of admiration because she was the only one truly brave enough to stand up to Daichi’s serious glare.  The rest of the talked a good talk but more often than not they crumbled like a house of cards before long.

Ushijima shrugged his shoulders.  “I suppose… any way you want it.”

Michimiya let out a laugh of recognition but didn’t say anything.

Oikawa’s eyes lit up and he pointed at her.  “ _ She loves to laugh _ ,” he sang softly and she grinned at him and pointed back, barely even missing a beat.

“ _ She loves to sing. _ ”

“ _ She does everything _ ,” they sang together.

Daichi groaned.  “Guys.  Not here.  We’re in public.  There are other people here.”

“ _ She loves to move _ .”  Oikawa swayed back and forth in his seat and Michimiya did the same a moment later.

“ _ She loves to groove _ .”

“ _ She loves the lovin’ things _ ,” they sang together again.

 

Daichi was not impressed by how well they sounded.  He was, however, slightly impressed by how well they matched each other’s pitch almost perfectly without trying.

 

Then Kuroo sang out the guitar part and Daichi buried his face in his arms.

 

“ _ Any way you want it.  That's the way you need it.  Any way you want it _ .”  The diner staff was watching them with smiles on their faces.

Kuroo sang the guitar part again.

“ _ She said, any way you want it.  That's the way you need it.  Any way you want it. _ ”

Bokuto beat out a rhythm against the tabletop, softer than Daichi expected, and even Ushijima was nodding along.

Terushima and Futakuchi gave Daichi matching looks of confusion and he just shook his head; he had no idea when their life became some kind of Disney sing along either.

Oikawa held out his hand and Michimiya ran her fingers across his palm.

“ _ Ooh, then we touched.  Then we sang. _ _ About the lovin' things _ .”

 

They were in a diner - which didn’t exactly have the best acoustics to begin with - at nearly three-thirty in the morning and Oikawa and Michimiya were belting their hearts out like they were center stage.  Kuroo sang the guitar part like his life depended on it, with Bokuto apparently on drums and all Daichi could do was put his chin in his hand and shake his head.

The rest of them gave the little band a standing ovation.

Even the diner staff clapped for them.

Their waitress asked if they did requests and offered them all free desserts if they sang  _ Don't’ Stop Believin’ _ .

A chocolate lava cake with extra sprinkles, ice cream, and powdered sugar at 4AM had never tasted quite so good to any of them.

 

\--

 

They sat side by side on the cliff overlooking the beach, legs dangling over the edge, shoulders brushing as they leaned back or forward or to the side, sharing jokes and quiet conversations.  Their voices rose and fell like the waves lapping at the shore below them.  The sun sank lower and lower towards the horizon, washing the clouds in swaths of purples and pinks and painting their skin with a golden touch.  They looked mystical.  Ethereal beings.  Gods and Goddesses choosing to spend some time in the mortal realm, enjoying the magic of life passing by measured not in minutes but in laughter and smiles and half hearted shoves.

The sun dipped lower, nearly blinding them when it sank out of the clouds and hung for a moment - a moment that had them all pausing mid-sentence with their hearts clenching in their chests as they waited, breathless - before slipping out of sight beyond the horizon.

Bokuto’s floating lights flickered into life and hovered around them like fireflies and they slowly - hesitantly, reluctantly - got to their feet, eyes still on the horizon as if just by staring at it they could keep themselves paused in that moment of time just a little longer.

By the time they made it to the fire pit they had found on the beach and got a fire started the stars were twinkling into existence, bright in the clear night.  There was enough room for them to spread out around the crackling flames but they drifted together.  Legs and arms and hands and fingers tangled together on the sand.

“I can’t believe we’ll be home tomorrow,” Terushima finally said after endless minutes they all spent staring into the fire and lost in their own thoughts.  “It’s so weird.”

“I actually regret this less than I expected to,” Oikawa said.  “I thought I’d strangle at least one of you before we got back.”  He was seated between Ushijima and Kuroo - tilted to the side pressed against Kuroo’s shoulder with his knee pressed against Ushijima’s thigh.

“I thought I’d strangle all of you,” Daichi announced calmly.  His eyes were trained on the fire so he didn’t see Yui’s punch coming.  Though he wasn’t too surprised by it and he rubbed at his throbbing shoulder with a smile on his face.

Bokuto hummed.  He had his head in Terushima’s lap and his feet tucked under Futakuchi’s thighs, Button asleep on his chest, as his eyes drifted from the fire to each of his friend’s faces and back again.

“It just doesn’t quite feel real, ya know?”  He gestured to all of them and then the sky and the water and the world in general.  “I mean before we left we barely knew each other.  Now it’s gonna be strange to go to sleep tomorrow night without listening to Oikawa singing or seeing Yui’s neon purple pjs.”

“It’s a little surreal,” Yui agreed.  “It’s hard to believe our summer is already pretty much over.”

“Maybe the real treasure is the friends we made along the way.”  Terushima kept his face blank and sincere for approximately five seconds after he said it.  Long enough for Bokuto to blink and then snort.  Laughter spilled out of all of them.  It was a little sad, a little frantic, but it was warm too.  Refreshing and relieving like a warm blanket after a long day.  As cheesy and cliche as the words were, they were true in a way.  None of them would be going home without some treasured bauble of friendship in their minds and hearts.

 

“ _ Is this the real life? _ ”  Daichi sang out suddenly, voice low but clear in the night.  “ _ Is this just fantasy? _ ”

They all stared at him for a moment.

“Dude.  Daichi.  Are you drunk?”  Kuroo asked.

Bokuto sat up, eyes wide and excited, and Button slid onto the sand with a sleepy grunt.  “Sing along?”

“Sing along,” Daichi confirmed.

“ _ Caught in a landslide _ ,” Ushijima continued, surprising everyone.  “ _ No escape from reality _ ,” Yui joined him with a smile.

“Are we hallucinating?”  Oikawa asked Kuroo.  “Are we really here right now seeing this?”

“ _ Open your eyes _ ,” Kuroo turned to Oikawa as he joined in.  He tapped his thumb under Oikawa’s jaw to make him tilt his head up.  “ _ Look up to the skies and see _ .”

Oikawa snickered and looked across the fire to meet Terushima’s and then Futakuchi’s eyes.  They all shrugged at each other.

“ _ I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy _ .”  They all belted out.

It was ridiculous.  It was pointless.  Half of them were out of tune with the other half and Bokuto’s dramatic gestures were only outdone by Terushima’s.

Kuroo hit the high, “ _ Galileo _ ,” and shocked them all for a moment until Daichi dropped his pitch and responded.

It shouldn’t have worked.  They should have all been messes, everyone trying to sing some parts and no one singing the others.

 

 

“ _ Easy come, easy go, will you let me go _ ,” Ushijima sang out, face serious as he almost glared at Terushima.

“ _ Bismillah _ ,” Terushima, Bokuto, and Futakuchi sang back.  “ _ No, we will not let him go. _ ”

“ _ Let him go _ ,” Kuroo, Daichi, and Oikawa sang to them in an almost piercing falsetto.

It was the best kind of disaster.  Serious singing with laughter bubbling dangerously close to the surface as they pointed and stared and made faces at each other.

“ _ No, no, no, no, no, no, no. _ ”  Had anyone stumbled upon them they might have thought the group was possessed by something as their heads snapped back and forth, firelight throwing dramatic shadows across their face.

“ _ Oh, mama mia, mama mia _ ,” they all sang. 

“ _ Mama mia, let me go _ ,” Terushima pleaded.

“ _ Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, _ ” Daichi sang.

His eyes darted to Oikawa. “ _ For me _ ,” Oikawa continued and they turned to Kuroo.

“ _ For me _ ,” Kuroo launched into that pitch again, voice rising until Bokuto jumped to his feet and started singing out the guitar part.

 

 

“ _ Any way the wind blows _ ,” Oikawa’s voice softened, lost under the crackle of the fire until his breath ran out and they all blinked away tears.

 

 

Reality was waiting for them with the sunrise.

 

But tonight… tonight they were still magic and stardust and fireflies illuminating the dark with promises of eternities and forevers and never ending.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come yell at me at [tumblr](http://ezzydean.tumblr.com)!


End file.
